Soul Latched

Soul Latched
Taya Quinn POV

The room reeked of blood, even though neither had touched the pristine sheets beneath Elowen’s shaking body. Her skin was too pale, her breath too shallow, and something oily and wrong slithered just beneath the surface of her spirit.

"Sun above," I whispered, pressing my trembling hands to her chest. "Don't you fucking die on me now."

Zuki snarled in my head, pacing like a caged beast. “This isn’t a wound we can heal with herbs and hope. This is soul deep, Taya.”

“I know,” I whispered aloud, voice cracking. “That’s why I need Him.”

I tilted my face to the sky, even though the walls of the healer’s chamber surrounded us, and I called for my god, the Sun Sovereign himself. My heart burned, my body trembled, and I offered every ounce of power I had left.

A flare of white gold light exploded through the room. Warm. Blinding. Divine. He appeared in a shimmer of golden robes and power, eyes ancient and burning. He knelt beside me with more gentleness than I expected from a celestial being.

“I’ve been waiting for you to call,” he said softly. “She is marked.”

“I’ve tried everything,” I choked. “The leeches, the dark magic....it’s not just a parasite. It’s Raelith. She’s inside her. I can feel it.”

“You’re not wrong,” he said, eyes dimming with sorrow. “Raelith was reborn using Elowen’s blood… but also her soul. She’s tethered to it now. A twisted mirror to her purity.”

Zuki howled in my mind, and I felt the echo in my bones. “Fucking gods damned monster. That bitch latched herself to our girl’s light?”

I sobbed as I nodded. “So what the hell do I do? How do I get it out?”

The Sun God placed his hand over mine. “We do it together. Brace yourself, child. This will hurt.”

The light exploded from our hands and punched through Elowen’s chest like a star born lance. She arched off the bed, screaming, her eyes glowing silver and gold and black all at once. The corruption writhed, clawing, screaming through her soul like it could still win.

Zuki snarled. “FIGHT HER, QUEEN. FIGHT THAT FUCKING WITCH.”

I poured every ounce of light I had into Elowen. The room quaked, shadows recoiled, and finally, with a demonic shriek that cracked every window in the castle, a dark shard ripped free from her spirit and dissolved into smoke.

We collapsed at the same time, gasping. I knew the job wasn’t finished. “She’ll live,” the Sun God said, brushing my hair from my face with a strange tenderness, “but Raelith is not gone. She left a scar on Elowen’s soul. You’ll need to purge her once a week. Every seven days. Or Raelith will claw her way back in.”

“Fuck,” I whispered, shaking.

Zuki whimpered.“She doesn’t deserve this. Not after everything.”

“I know,” I whispered. My tears were hot. Helpless. Furious. “She’s my queen. My sister. My best fucking friend. How much more does she have to survive?”

He said nothing more. Just placed a sunburst kiss on my forehead and vanished in a ripple of golden heat.

The second he disappeared, the doors burst open....a goddamned flood of emotion crashing in. Elowen’s mates rushed to her side like they were dying without her. Daxon hit his knees. Bram hovered like a bear ready to murder anything. Lachlan and Ashrian didn’t even pretend to hide their grief. Vaelrix looked like he’d tear the heavens apart if she didn’t wake up again.

Rylen grabbed me first, pulling me into his arms before I hit the floor. I sobbed into his chest. “She’s stable,” I croaked. “But, fuck...there’s more. Raelith… she’s not done. She’s tied to her soul. I got most of it out, but it’ll come back without weekly treatments. We have to be vigilant. All of us.”

Amaris cursed, fists clenched at her sides. “Fucking hell. So we’re on borrowed time?”

I nodded. “Yeah. But that’s not even the worst part. Elowen’s going to feel it. She’ll have nightmares. Rage. Maybe even darkness seeping into her thoughts. You can’t get angry with her when it happens. She needs love, grounding, understanding. Or Raelith will win.”

“I should’ve gotten to her faster,” Daxon rasped, voice raw.

“We all should’ve,” Bram growled.

“She needs us united now,” Vaelrix said, wings folding behind him. “So we don’t let her fall.”

Zuki whispered in my head again, softer now. “We’ll carry her. We’ll carry each other.”

And we fucking would. Because Elowen wasn’t just our queen. She was our light.

And now that darkness had tasted her soul… it would take all of us to keep her from being consumed.

Daxon Stormclaw POV

I couldn’t fucking breathe.

Not because I was winded or wounded....nah, that would’ve made sense. I couldn’t breathe because she was broken. Because Raelith, that festering rot of a bitch, had sunk her claws into my mate’s soul.

Her soul, godsdammit. My fists were clenched so hard my claws ripped through my own palms, but I didn’t feel the pain. I barely registered the blood dripping down my fingertips as I stormed through the halls of the keep like a fucking hurricane.

People moved out of my way fast. Good. I didn’t want to see anyone. Didn’t want to talk. If someone so much as breathed wrong near me, Talon would’ve ripped their throat out and pissed on their corpse.

My wolf was howling. Snarling. “They took her light, Daxon. Our light. And we couldn’t stop it.”

“I know,” I growled back, low and savage.She was supposed to be safe. We were supposed to protect her.

Instead we stood helpless while she was strapped to a goddamn table, used like a fucking blood bag, and now that bitch Raelith had latched onto her, staining the one thing Elowen had always protected, her purity, her soul, her light.

I slammed into a column hard enough to crack the stone. Didn’t give a shit.Talon raged in my head, damn near feral.
“Let me out. Let me run. Let me rip something to pieces.”

I almost let him.

“Daxon.”

That voice. Deep. Commanding. Unshakeable. I turned, chest heaving, and met my father’s eyes.

Alpha Draven. He didn’t flinch when I bared my teeth. He didn’t blink when my claws flexed. He just stepped forward, calm and steady, and wrapped his arms around me.

I collapsed into his arms. I gripped my father like a dying man clutches breath, my head on his shoulder, shaking like a goddamn pup. My growls turned to sobs, harsh and guttural.

“She’s everything, Dad,” I choked. “And I fucking failed her.”

He gripped the back of my neck, holding me close like I was still his little boy learning to shift. “You listen to me, son,” he said, voice low but fierce. “You did not fail. This war, this darkness, it plays dirty. But you are her alpha. Her mate. You do not break.”

“I feel like I am,” I whispered. “I feel like I can’t fix this.”

He pulled back just enough to look me in the eye.“You don’t have to fix it alone. You lead. You be strong. Not just for her, but for all of them. That’s what it means to be an alpha.”

Behind him, Luna Aelira stepped into the corridor, her eyes red rimmed but blazing with that Stormclaw fire. She didn’t speak, she just wrapped her arms around us both. Soria followed, silent and trembling, and she joined too.

The four of us stood there, a tangle of pain and power and blood bound loyalty. A pack. A family.

I felt Talon calm inside me, slowly retreating from the ledge. “We’re not alone,” he whispered, voice raw. “We still have her. And she still has us.”

My claws retracted. My breath evened. I wiped my eyes and stood taller. Because Dad was right. I was an alpha. Her alpha.

And I’d burn the whole godsdamned world down before I let Raelith take one more piece of her.